Agent Gray, Red with Love

I Am The Phone Man

  The ACME agents visibly didn't like Graham at first. He didn't really blame them. He was just a normal electrician, when they were all ex-CIA agents, detectives, athletes, police, scientists, and international chess champions. It made sense for them to be mildly annoyed that some new guy, with no previous espionage training, just waltzed in, didn't complete a single day of ACME introductory courses, and still already became a respected agent.

  That's when Devineaux "accidentally" let it slip that Graham was the phone guy.

  To put it simply, he became a family favorite very soon. 

  Zari and Devineaux made sure it never got to his head (or more Zari than Devineaux) but they didn't have much to worry about. Between high fives, nods of approval, and pats on the back he got a lot of, "Good going, Hawkins! We'll get San Diego soon!"

  That always made him feel a tinge of guilt and sadness. He had been so angry at Carmen recently, and on certain levels, he still was. But seeing her again? He just internally melted, and it felt like he was back at square one with his feeling about her. Which really sucked, considering that he had to arrest her.

  That being said, two weeks went by quickly. With the phone, ACME had started putting names and faces together. They had matched faces with one Lady Dokuso, El Topo, Dash Haber, and a couple more. They successfully checked Roundabout off from the list of newly discovered V.I.L.E operatives, something the British agents at ACME seemed to enjoy doing. But there was still thousands of names they knew nothing about, likely more, and that made ACME nervous.

  The past capers on the phone database gave ACME an idea of how V.I.L.E operated their missions, so they were starting to more successfully avert V.I.L.E capers.  They had new codes used to tap into and spy on V.I.L.E radio calls. They almost caught a few agents, too. Almost. 

  Most importantly to Chief, they had more background information on Carmen San Diego's specific skills, from recorded information from her childhood in the phone. There was still many, many unanswered questions about V.I.L.E and Carmen, but every new sliver of information counted.

  When it turned out that Graham, despite his unique talents, still couldn't navigate ACME procedures for the life of him, agents had taken time to teach him extra courses, including some new languages.

  Graham was in a Portuguese lesson with a seasoned agent named Felix, when Zari knocked on the door.

  "Sim?" Graham asked, out of habit "Oh, ei Zari, tudo bem?" (Translate via google translate: Yes? Oh, hey Zari, What's up?)

  Felix clapped his hands, "You're getting good at this!"

  "Lucky for us. It's nice to see that Hawkins has at least has the potential to speak something other than English. I couldn't teach him a word of Mandarin," Zari smirked.

  "Well I can speak fluent Canadian, American, English, Jamaican, and Australian, so hah!" Graham laughed, "Anyway seriously though, what's up?"

  "'Faculty wants to speak with," Zari said, her smile fading.

  The word "faculty" sent a jarring pain through Graham's skull. A memory started flooding back to him, and it didn't seem to be positive.

  "V-I-L-E. Valuable Imports, Lavish Exports," a thick southern accent said in a loud, commanding voice. She sounded like she was an experienced principal of a high school, welcoming new 9th graders to the campus.

  In his memory, he envisioned a large woman, with green, short hair, and wearing a blue jogging suit standing on a stage in front of him. He was surrounded by people, just average people. On one side of him, he thought he recognized.... was that a younger scary boot lady? Crikey, when did she change her hair? And that southern voice? Where did he recognize it form?